All that Glitters…

The track record of the Tatas in the field of worker welfare is widely acknowledged in the literature and the discussions on industrial harmony.  There is a proliferation of prose that narrates the corporate benevolence of the Tata fraternity, which dates back to the pioneering labour welfare measures of Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO), now Tata Steel, set up in 1907 in a remote Bihar village Sakchi.

A sample of such discussions reads: “In the field of labour welfare and relations, TISCO pioneered concepts long before they were practised in the West. It introduced the eight-hour work day in 1912. Three years later, employees were given free medical aid. By 1920, benefits such as leave with pay, a pension and accident compensation were provided to TISCO`s workers. Maternity benefits were added in 1928 and a profit-sharing plan was instituted in 1934.” (International Management Magazine, February 1983)

Some sources (for example, http://www.answers.com /topic/tata-steel) go one step further and state that, “Tata Steel`s furnaces have never been disrupted on account of a labour strike and this is an enviable record of sorts.”

A visit to the centenary website of Tata Steel (http://www.tatasteel100.com) testifies that the Tatas also proudly own and rejoice in all these applauses. Of the 100 snapshots included in the webpage, symbolising the 100 milestones of the company, at least 15 images directly trumpet the organisation`s love for labour! These, along with about 20 other images on community development initiatives of the Tatas, convey a strong message that labour welfare has been one of the first cares of the company. The company, which celebrated `75 Years of Industrial Harmony` in 2004, also treasures the recognition from and patronage of both videshi rulers and swadeshi leaders, which includes the renaming of Sakchi in 1919 as Jamshedpur (after Jamsetji Tata) by Lord Chelmsford, Viceroy of India, and the remarks of Mahatma Gandhi, who during his 1925 visit to Jamshedpur, told the workers, “…in serving the Tatas, you serve India.”

Such pompous chronicling of corporate benevolence, however, cannot so easily wash away the intensive struggles of TISCO workers since the 1920s. Intermittent and exceptional research on the labour history of India reveals that, contrary to the popular belief and the image of Tatas as a `caring corporate`, TISCO workers had to struggle intensively to realise better wages, working conditions and even for trade union rights, at different points in time.

Pioneering Strikes of 1920 and 1922

The first strike of Indian workers in TISCO was a lightning strike of foundry workers, which commenced on 24 February 1920 and continued till 18 March. The strikers approached Byomkesh Chakravarty and Surendranath Haldar of Calcutta, who helped them to found the Jamshedpur Labour Association (JLA). The strike was followed by a denial of the management to give in to the workers’ demands that included a 50 per cent wage increase, improvement of the grain stores and guarantee against abuse of Indian labour by European superiors.

The strike became militant, with the workers attending pickets, armed with sticks. On 15 March 1920, at a militant demonstration to prevent the strike breakers from entering the plant, five workers were killed and several others injured in police firing. The European Town Administrator, who ordered the firing, was attacked by a man armed with an iron bar. Clashes continued, despite the shooting. Subsequently, on 20 March, the Tata managegment conceded a 25 per cent wage increase to those earning less than Rs 50 per month and 20 per cent increase to those earning more. However, many other general demands (such as fixed pay-scales, accident compensation, better treatment of subordinates, a service code and strike-pay) were refused by the management. The Tatas also refused to recognise JLA and eventually floated and ‘fostered’ the Tata Workers’ Welfare Committee to compete with the JLA, a strategy that continued over the next decade. The tensions and struggles of workers continued over the following months, preparing the ground for further unrests that took place in 1922.

The 1922 strike of 33 days united the workers on their economic grievances. The pre-strike demands presented to the management included a month’s salary as bonus; a 33 per cent wage increase; and the fixation of minimum wage for the weekly workers (at least at eight annas per hour). These demands were refused by J.R.D. Tata, on the ground that the profits were inadequate to redress the strikers’ grievances. Subsequently, even the watered-down demands of JLA were not accepted by the management, leading to the beginning of the strike on 10 September 1922. The management resorted to stringent measures to break the strike and threatened to dismiss those workers who refused to work. The JLA was also keen to solve the dispute, provided the management abstained from victimisation and agreed to recognise the association. Apparently, at that juncture, the association was more interested in securing its recognition than in fighting for the demands of the workers.

The strike was resolved, and despite the agreed principle of ‘no victimisation’, the TISCO management dismissed G. Sethi, Secretary of JLA  who was later reinstated after the intervention of a conciliation committee. During this period, nationalist leaders (such as Motilal Nehru, C.R. Das, N.M. Joshi, Dewan Chamanlal and C.F. Andrews) exerted pressure on the Tatas to recognize JLA. Notwithstanding this, the TISCO management continued to withhold the recognition of JLA for several months, on account of the presence of ‘outsiders’ in its leadership. Confronting this stubborn stand of the Tatas, with the backing of nationalist leaders and the new Trade Union Bill, in 1924 JLA made its first political statement: “We... refuse to forego our elementary right of electing any one as our office-bearer and secondly the election of outside office-bearers is absolutely necessary to prevent the office-bearers of the Association being intimidated by threats of dismissal.” Amidst these countering stands, the deadlock over the recognition of JLA continued till Mahatma Gandhi’s intervention and visit to Jamshedpur in 1925.

Background of Unrest

The working conditions and wages of Indian workers in TISCO were deplorable during the 1920s. On the one hand, large-scale modernisation and commencement of new plants (in the post-world war ‘Greater Extension’ phase) led to more capital-intensive techniques. The immediate outcomes of this change were acute intensification of work, drastic downsizing of the workforce (especially the unskilled) and a resultant increase in productivity. The annual production per worker increased from 117 tons to 218 tons. During the same period, the rate of accidents rose from 3.98 to 7.45 per hundred workers. Up to 1924, the Indian workers in continuous processes worked for 56 hours a week (eight hours a day for seven days) with no weekly holiday and were made to do four hours compulsory overtime. Workers were tightly controlled with no room for collectivisation/ democratisation. As Dilip Simeon notes, the American, T.W. Tutwiler, General Manager from 1916 to 1925, had allowed, “…no nonsense about modern concepts of democracy within the industry. To him, the right to hire and fire workers was a god-given right.” This was delegated to “abusive and corrupt supervisors and foremen,” who exercised “too much power in …appointment, promotion and discharge.”

The wage differentials in the company were also strikingly glaring. Vinay Bahl observes that “[during 1920s] Jamshedpur had, in respect of wages, the distinction of showing the highest wage differentials in the country and possibly in the world. The lowest paid workers were the boy and female coolies who, on an average received nine rupees per month. The average monthly pay of European employees was as high as Rs 650. The General Manager, who upto 1937 was an American, was paid Rs 7,500 per month. The wage differentials between him and the lowest paid workers was 1 to 850. Most categories of the workers received less than Rs 20…” Alongside these, there was near stagnation in wages between 1920 and 1928, a period during which the cost of living had almost doubled, leading to a drastic dip in real wages. The Indian workers were also aggrieved by the ill-treatment and abuse by the European staff, adding a racial dimension to the matter. The overall labour situation in TISCO during 1920s necessitated workers` resistance to take up economic and work-related demands, which ultimately led to the longest ever work stoppage in the company`s history in 1928.   

‘Great Strike of 1928’ and the Crisis in Leadership

Labour unrest in TISCO reached its peak in 1928, with the five-month-long strike-cum-lockout from May to September. Prior to the strike, in 1927, there were some instances of unrest on the shop floor. Realising the failure of JLA to articulate their grievances, a section of workers approached Maneck Homi, a former employee of TISCO, to lead them. The subsequent strike of 1928 showed the capacity of the workers to mobilise and coordinate different layers of class spectrum, from sweepers to white workers. 

Despite the fact that the strike was a failure, it saw the emergence of Homi as a popular leader in TISCO. Further, it began a historic chapter in the democratisation of union practices of industrial labour in India. The strike period marked a crisis within the JLA, around the question of workers’ right to choose their representatives. To prevent Maneck Homi’s election as president of JLA, the then leadership of the association held a view that only enrolled and paid-up members were eligible for the post. This was closely contested by Homi’s supporters for it was radically at odds with the constitution of JLA. Subsequently, there was a bitter fight for leadership of JLA between Homi and the radical nationalist Subhas Chandra Bose, who was recognised by the management (in their urge to offset the influence of Homi) as the ‘accredited leader’. Subsequently, Homi formed a new union in 1929, the Jamshedpur Labour Federation (JLF) but could not carry forward its activities because he was entangled in several criminal and civil cases, leading to rigorous imprisonment for five years, the longest for any leader outside the communist party.

Impressions of TISCO Workers’ Struggles

Notwithstanding their comparative failures, the industrial strikes of 1920s in TISCO assume importance in the history of industrial relations in the colonial period. All these struggles were organised on the basis of specific economic demands and work-related issues such as wages, working conditions, employment security, racial discrimination at the workplace, standards of living, and control over the work process.  These events, which explicate the extent of TISCO workers’ assertiveness, contributed considerably to industrial democracy by addressing central questions of union formation, norms of leadership and electoral procedures within trade unions. The unsung histories of worker struggles in TISCO continued in the 1930s and in subsequent decades, which includes a violent strike in 1958.

(Major Sources:  Bahl, Vinay  (1995): The Making of the Indian Working Class: The Case of Tata Iron and Steel Co., 1880-1946, Sage Publications, New Delhi; Simeon, Dilip (1995): The Politics of Labour under Late Colonialism: Workers, Unions and the State in Chota Nagpur, 1928-1939, Manohar Publishers, New Delhi)